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HP Slate 500 appears on video

by Pete Mason on 24 September 2010, 10:15

Tags: Windows 7, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaz63

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At the beginning of the year, HP's Slate 500 was the talk of the town and Windows 7 still looked like it could be the tablet OS of choice.  Fast-forward eight months, and Intel-powered Windows devices are all but a distant memory, having been almost totally eclipsed by ARM, Android and Apple.

The world's largest PC manufacturer hasn't forgotten about the Slate, though, and the enterprise-only tablet has now shown up in a mini-review on YouTube.

The unidentified poster - going by the screen name x313xkillax - briefly walks through the hardware before booting the device.  There aren't too many surprises on the outside, with the 8.9in prototype featuring a rubberised back, two integrated cameras, an SD-card slot, ‘keyboard button', USB port, volume buttons and a dedicated control-alt-delete key.

The system then gets powered on, and boots to a usable desktop relatively quickly.  Navigating through the OS, the poster pulls up a browser and visits a few webpages - though at this point the experience starts to fall apart a little. 

The interface was largely unaltered, making navigating with a relatively-inaccurate finger a clumsy experience that resulted in several 'missed' clicks.  The screen also seemed a little unresponsive and failed to register some swipes, though this is to be expected for a device still in development.

Many commenters suggested that the Slate might be a fake, citing the inclusion of a Ctrl-Alt-Del key and the lack of an explanation as to the prototype's origin as reasons.  However, the device certainly looks polished enough to be legitimate and seems to match up with earlier videos and photos. 

For now, we'll leave it to you to pass judgement - on both the legitimacy of the device and the viability of Windows 7 as a tablet OS - in the HEXUS.community.  



HEXUS Forums :: 3 Comments

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Quick comment n the ctrl alt del thing, HPs old slate TC1100 had hardware keys for these.
Flibb
Quick comment n the ctrl alt del thing, HPs old slate TC1100 had hardware keys for these.

I was just on my way to say exactly the same thing. Assuming this is an evolutionary product rather than a revolutionary one, a hardware alt-ctrl-del button would make perfect sense.

What it really needs, though, is at least stylus input. There's plenty of stuff I'm sure you can do with just finger prods, but windows really benefits from the additional accuracy of a stylus or pen.

That said, how clumsy must the user be to miss clicks on a 9“ slate? I rarely miss on my 3.2” HTC Magic…
scaryjim
What it really needs, though, is at least stylus input. There's plenty of stuff I'm sure you can do with just finger prods, but windows really benefits from the additional accuracy of a stylus or pen.

Apparently it does come with a stylus, and the poster will show video of it at some point.

In terms of the CAD key, I think it's just sensible. As well as being handy for enterprise users who need to log on, what happens if it decides to lock up a bit and you can't pull up the soft keyboard? Hit the CAD button and you can shut that pesky process down. Easy.